Economic Inequality in Sumatra 2010-2020

Economic inequality is a phenomenon that will always exist because the economic growth of each region is inequal. Sumatra is the choice of research area because it has ten provinces with varying regional conditions and economic activities. The majority of provinces have a large role in the agricultural sector, but some have industrial, and some have economically valuable mining materials. The research has conducted in the period 2010-2020 with secondary data obtained from the Statistic Indonesia. Period 2010 to 2019 uses annual data, while 2020 is quarterly. This study aims to capture the dynamics of regional inequality by Williamson Index, and descriptive analysis used to explain the dynamics of inequality in 2019 and 2020 when Covid-19 began to infect Indonesia. The results of the calculation show that regional inequality in Sumatra is decreasing even though Covid-19 is hitting it. The decrease happens because all economic activities in the ten observed provinces have slowed down. The decline in sector activity in 2020 mainly occurred in the transportation and warehousing sectors as well as the provision of food and drink accommodation sectors. The condition is related to limiting population mobilization as an effort to prevent the spread of the virus. The limitation of this research lies in the lack of detailed provincial data available for 2020.